Stars' Dillon Heatherington wanted to 'stick it to' the Colombus Blue Jackets in his NHL debut

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TORONTO, ON - JANUARY 5: Dillon Heatherington #3 of Team Canada ties up Maxim Mamin #18 of Team Russia during the gold medal game in the 2015 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship at the Air Canada Centre on January 5, 2015 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Team Canada defeated Team Russia 5-4 to win the gold medal. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)

A second-round draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013, Heatherington made his NHL debut Thursday as a member of the Stars. Acquired in a trade for Lauri Korpikoski last March, Heatherington's path came full circle.

"It's unreal, it's tough to put into words," Heatherington said Thursday morning. "Playing against the old team that I was drafted by, you kind of have to stick it to them. I'm looking forward to it."

Heatherington is in an interesting place with his new team. He was down on the depth chart to start the season, just getting dug in with the AHL Texas Stars. But the NHL team lost Patrik Nemeth on waivers, traded away Jamie Oleksiak and then saw a nagging knee injury continue to keep Marc Methot out of the lineup. That created a need for a seventh defenseman, so Heatherington was called up to act as support on this four-game road trip. Three games in, Stars coach Ken Hitchcock said it was time to take a look at Heatherington.

"We need to see what we have," Hitchcock said Thursday morning. "Let's get him out there and see how he looks. With this situation with Methot, not knowing when he's going to come back, we need to find out about these younger guys."

Likewise, Heatherington wants to find out what he can do. The big (6-4, 225) defenseman from Calgary has won a gold medal in the world juniors (2015) and helped Cleveland win the AHL championship in 2016. He has 13 points in 39 games with the Texas Stars this season and is ready to take the next step.

On Thursday, he played 13:28 and made simple plays.

Why Stars took major step forward as a team despite missed opportunities vs. Blue Jackets

"He was good, solid, smart," Hitchcock said. "This is a different dimension for us. He's an asset, a really good asset for us."

Heatherington had his parents and brother in the stands, and he had to take the "rookie lap" during warm-ups. Teammates make him go out and skate one lap by himself with his helmet off while they applaud. Heatherington said the entire night was an "unreal experience."

"You always dream as a kid playing in the NHL. To achieve that goal was something special," he said. "The first five minutes my legs were shaking, so it's tough to concentrate. As the game went on, (defense partner Stephen) Johns helped me out so much. He has experienced that before, and he just kind of helped me settle down and I finally found my game and went there."

Julius Honka was a healthy scratch Thursday and Methot could be just weeks away from getting back into the lineup, so this could be a short audition for Heatherington. Then again, he could seize an opportunity the way Greg Pateryn has this year and make it difficult to take him out of the lineup -- at least for a little while.

"We're excited, and we're curious," Hitchcock said. "This is an exciting moment, not just for Heater, but also for the guys with the American League team because he's a popular guy there, he's a big-time player, he's one of these guys who just worked his way up and he's earned the right to play some games."

Klingberg continues to impress: Defenseman John Klingberg entered Thursday's game with an eight-game scoring streak. That's the first eight-game scoring streak for a Stars defenseman since Sergei Zubov in 2006.

Doing anything that includes Zubov's name is impressive in the Stars' universe.

"When I was a kid, I didn't know much about him. It was all [Nicklas] Lidstrom," Klingberg said. "But ever since I got here, I understand how big he was. It's a huge challenge for me to be named in the same area of the games as he was, so I take pride in that."

Klingberg leads all NHL defensemen in scoring and has been named to his first All-Star Game.